Cy Pruitt

Writing original second-chance, danmei-inspired MM romance.

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    • 2025 NaNoWriMo

      Guide to Falling and Wake were both written while participating in National Novel Writing Month. The organization itself, I don’t have much to say about, but I’ve had great success in a writing server where we participate together, and after a year or two absence, this year I’m finally participating again!

      Liar’s Guide to Diving is what I’m completing Preptober with, and unless I get hit by the mother of all writer’s block, I’m hoping that it will persist through the month and I’ll be able to start serializing by January while also starting a deep re-write of Wake.

    • Kill Your Darlings

      Big updates on life, less updates on writing.

      In the last six months, I’ve finished my Master’s degree (no, not in writing, an MBA with an accounting concentration, if you can believe). This is my second Master’s; before this I also got a MEd with a concentration on ESL Curriculum and Instruction.

      But anything more than two is outrageous, right? So I should finally be free! And freedom means more time to write, and more time to reflect on the process of editing.

      Releasing GTF was a huge milestone. I’m honored by each reader and reviewer and have learned a lot about the process. I now know that if you serialize with an eye toward future publication, you develope different plot maps so that your volumes have natural stopping points.

      I learned that changing the font for re-reads is not sufficient self editing, and have started working with a wonderful and dedicated editor named Melissa Chew.

      I already knew (but confirmed) that I cannot market myself at all and that every last post will be hemmed and hawed over as I worry about annoying people with self-promo.

      So, you know–we’re still not a professional outfit over here, but I think we’re officially in the ‘kid outgrows shoes as soon as you buy ’em’ stage, and that’s pretty neat to.

      I hope to have Air Purifier (or whatever steals the show and replaces it) releasing in November and am currently going through Melissa’s edits for GTF. In July, she’ll start a much bigger developmental edit on Wake, my messy child, and hopefully we’ll get it into a proper configuration, because I do love the nugget of the story there.

      -Cy

    • Volume 2 Is Here!

      Volume 2 Is Here!


      It’s arrived with more of a plop than a splash, but Volume 2 of F*ck-Up’s Guide to Falling in Love has officially been published, and with that, the story is complete.

      I would say that I learned I was bad at marketing and social media, but honestly, I already knew that, haha.

      I’m still thrilled. Through this self-publishing journey, I:

      • Strengthened my editing skills, cutting a whopping 300+ pages from the story without losing any events, or, in my opinion, important details. The jump from serialization to print is intimidating at first glance, but was oddly pleasing once finished.
      • I got on Bluesky, and got to meet a ton of new (real) people. Authors talking to authors has nothing to do with sales, but it’s sparked my writing again, and that’s even more important.
      • I found the best illustrator. Oh my goodness! Eliasis made my favorite cover ever for Vol 1, and then blew it out of the water with Vol 2, which I love even more. I hope I can work with them on all my covers in the future.

      Anyway, maybe, someday, I’ll have a large enough catalog to advertise and make a splash, but for now I’m glad that I acomplished a personal goal and made a few loyal readers very happy in the process. ❤

    • Judging A Book By Its Cover

      Judging A Book By Its Cover

      When you’re self-publishing, coming up with covers is a special challenge. For posting on the web, I commissioned an artist to draw my main characters. I added a border and some text. That was my cover.

      Because it’s my first cover, I’ll always have a soft spot for it, but when I decided to self-publish, I knew that I’d need a new one. Why?

      • Commercial Use: I actually paid my artist for commercial use. However, our entire interaction was via Twitter DM (those were the days) and they’ve since moved to other platforms. Given the lack of formal contract, I’m hesitant to move their art from web to print.
      • Popular Trends: Everyone wants a professional cover. Which is more difficult when you aren’t working with a professional publishing team. I’ve done fact-finding in my own bookshelf and on the relevant lists, trying to understand what the genre and its reader want. At the same time, I want to avoid things that I think can date covers, like using decoupaged stock images. (The lack of free images that match my story also helped me choose!) I also want to be true to myself and my own aesthetic.
      • Print Color Profiles and Dimensions: Although this is the least sexy reason, it’s the one that kicked off the rest: My webnovel cover was designed for the web! No spine, no back cover, no CMYK profile– I knew I’d have to revamp it anyway, and once I opened that door, why not evolve?

      Knowing what I didn’t want didn’t make creating a new cover any easier. At first, I went mad with power using Canva’s AI image generation. It was fun, and lovely, and exciting. But there are ethical concerns with AI covers. And some practical ones. The more you look, the more it bugs you when the character’s hand can’t actually be holding that umbrella, you know? Although I have three AI cover options that I truly like, I fear regretting them in the future. So I re-evaluated.

      Instead, I found a talented artist in my online reading group and worked with them to create a cover that completely blows me away. Not only did the talented Eliasis create amazing art of main characters Wei Qing and Yue Fei, but they full designed the cover, including blurb and title.

    • Cy Pruitt: New Name & The Creation of This Site

      Cy Pruitt: New Name & The Creation of This Site

      Welcome to my site, where I’m organizing news and information on my novels and my writing in one place. Why now?

      Well, because “Fuck-Up’s Guide to Falling in Love” is being published! Self-published, but it’s still something that I’ve been building up to since I first began writing Wei Qing and Yue Fei’s story back in 2020.

      The publishing process is intimidating. What if I put in all this work to edit and format and sell, only for no one to buy it at all? As someone that still hasn’t held a housewarming party due to the fear that no one would show up, publishing takes that particular anxiety up to 11. But I still want to try. And to try means to do it correctly, which involves some adjustments:

      • Pen Name:
        • A Nate by any other name- I hope I am still as sweet as I switch from Nate Nox to Cy Pruitt for writing. Why? Well, there’s already a Nathan Nox on Amazon, and Twitter, and so forth. I don’t want to fight him to the death, or have our identities merged.

          Instead of risking confusion, I decided to utilize a pen name in honor of my dad. It might sound strange, given my genres, but my dad is the reason I have stories to share at all. For years and years, I would start a story, get stuck, and then delete the whole manuscript in a fit of pique. I felt like nothing I wrote was original or worthy, so I just chucked it. It was his memory and his words that made me stick with Guide to Falling, my first work, and risk posting it despite all my fear.

          Why not do a play on his name now that I’m actually printing copies? Love you Dad.
      • Online Presence:
        • While I might sink like a stone, I hope that people will find my work and want to find me. (In a non-doxxing way). If you’re reading this, I must have succeeded! I’ll succeed even more if you’re willing to comment, join the mailing list, or even purchase a book.
      • Extras:
        • Webnovels, webnovels, oh how long we write you. Now that I’m up against the realities of binding limitations, I’m tightening up the story and completing additional proofreading. In doing so, I want to make sure that for any little fluff that gets removed, there’s an entire pile of it here for readers to enjoy. Early purchasers and early members may even have the chance to request some unique extras for everyone!
      • Marketing
        • I don’t know how to market, at all. And I don’t have a Yue Fei to solve everything for me. So that’s lovely. I’ll be doing my best to learn as I go, and would love help from all you on what kind of outreach and extras you respond to when looking for new works.